Pacers Notes: Zubac, Q. Jackson, Carlisle, Injuries
More than a month after being acquired at the trade deadline, Ivica Zubac was able to make his Pacers debut this week, writes Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star. Fully recovered from a left ankle injury, Zubac played 16 minutes on Thursday against Phoenix and 29 on Friday against New York. Coach Rick Carlisle told reporters that it’s important for Zubac and his new teammates to get used to each other in preparation for next season.
“We need to find ways to make these games meaningful for the development of our team,” Carlisle said. “It’s important that Andrew Nembhard and Zubac play together. … We’re looking to introduce things that take advantage of Zu’s strengths, the guys he’s playing with. Now it’s just a matter of more time together in games.”
The Pacers currently have the league’s worst record, but they plan to be back in title contention next season with most of their NBA Finals roster still together and Zubac taking the place of Myles Turner. Zubac has been closely observing the team’s style of play over the past few weeks in preparation for that challenge, and he believes he’ll be a good addition.
“I feel like no matter who plays on this team, they play the same way,” Zubac said. “They fit right in. It’s always next man up. It felt the same. It’s different guys, but the way they play, the way they move, the stuff they do, everyone on this team is really bought into the system. No matter who is out there, they’re gonna play super hard, they’re gonna move the ball, they’re gonna sacrifice themselves for the other guy. It’s really fun.”
There’s more from Indiana:
- Zubac was playing with ankle soreness in L.A. and didn’t expect to get back to 100% until the season ended, Tony East of Circle City Spin states in an inside look at the center’s return to action. That approach changed with the trade, as the Pacers wanted him to be completely healed before he tried to play again.
- Backup point guard Quenton Jackson missed his second straight game on Friday with a calf issue. “It’s a mild strain,” Carlisle said, per Dopirak (Twitter link). “But every time you hear calf strain it’s not mild. It’s something that requires attention.”
- Carlisle revealed that as the Pacers deal with numerous injuries, they’re in frequent contact with the league office about who is able to play, Dopirak adds (Twitter link). The team was fined $100K last month for violating the player participation policy, and Carlisle wants league officials to be aware of his situation heading into a stretch of five games in seven days. He added that the conversations have been happening since mid-January.
Ivica Zubac Will Make Pacers Debut Thursday
March 12: Zubac will play on Thursday, head coach Rick Carlisle confirmed (Twitter link via Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star).
Obi Toppin, Nesmith, McConnell, Siakam and Jackson are all out, but Nembhard will be available, tweets East.
March 11: Veteran center Ivica Zubac has been upgraded to questionable for the Pacers‘ game against the Suns on Thursday, per Tony East of Forbes Sports (Twitter link).
If he’s able to play vs. Phoenix, it would mark Zubac’s debut for the Pacers, who acquired him at February’s trade deadline with an eye to shoring up their frontcourt in the 2026/27 season when Tyrese Haliburton returns from his ruptured Achilles.
After averaging 16.8 points and 12.6 rebounds per game and being named to the All-Defensive second team in 2024/25, Zubac has battled injuries this season, including a left ankle sprain that has kept him on the shelf since February 2.
At the time of the trade that sent him from the Clippers to the Pacers, it was unclear if Zubac would suit up for Indiana this season, especially since the 2026 first-round pick they gave up for him includes top-four and 10-30 protection, making the team’s end-of-season lottery odds especially important. The Pacers are currently 15-50, which is the NBA’s worst record.
T.J. McConnell, Andrew Nembhard, and Aaron Nesmith are all also considered questionable for Thursday’s matchup with Phoenix, while Pascal Siakam and Quenton Jackson are listed as doubtful to play.
Pacers First NBA Team Eliminated From Postseason Contention
The Pacers became the first NBA team formally eliminated from postseason contention after they lost at Sacramento on Tuesday night and Charlotte picked up a victory in Portland, tweets Tony East of Circle City Spin.
Indiana has lost 10 straight games and currently has the worst record in the league at 15-50 (Sacramento improved to 16-50 with the win). Charlotte holds the No. 10 seed in the Eastern Conference at 33-33, and since the Pacers only have 17 games remaining, they have no way to make up the 17.5-game deficit.
As Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star writes (subscription required), the Pacers were up 20 points with 4:58 remaining in the third quarter, but struggled the rest of the way. This is just the 10th time in the past 37 seasons that Indiana won’t make the playoffs.
“Crazy game,” Carlisle said. “End of the third quarter obviously was a big problem for us and their bench just played an unbelievable last 15 minutes of the game. Just tremendous. So you gotta give them a lot of credit. Their shot-making and aggression — all that — was big-time. We had some pretty good looks. They didn’t go in. That was disappointing. We did an awful lot of good things in the first two-and-a-half quarters, but unfortunately the last 18 minutes count.”
The Pacers have been decimated by injuries all season, Dopirak notes. As long as they hold a bottom-three record when 2025/26 ends, they’ll have a 52.1% chance at landing a top-four pick and 14.0% odds for the No. 1 selection. That’s noteworthy, because the 2026 first-round pick they traded to the Clippers for Ivica Zubac is top-four (and 10-30) protected.
The star of the game for the Kings was Devin Carter, who didn’t play at all in the first half, writes Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. The 2024 lottery pick erupted for 22 points in the fourth quarter, finishing with a career-high 24 points, five rebounds and three assists in only 16 minutes of action.
“It felt great, especially my teammates trusting me, putting the ball in my hands,” Carter said. “They set me up for success, so it felt great.”
Carter admitted it’s been a tough season, as he hasn’t played much in year two. He has only made 27 appearances in 2025/26 and is averaging just 14.3 minutes per game.
“I haven’t been in the rotation much, so I wasn’t expecting too much,” Carter said. “Just trying to put my work in and stay ready.”
Carter has been ruled out of Tuesday’s game vs. Charlotte due to right calf soreness, Anderson tweets. Fellow guards Russell Westbrook (right quad contusion) and Malik Monk (right ankle soreness) will be sidelined as well.
Kings head coach Doug Christie voiced his opposition to tanking prior to Monday’s game, Dopirak adds.
“This is just me personally, I don’t mess with the game,” Christie said. “You do not mess with the game. You let the game do what it’s gonna do. There has to be a respect for the game and how you go about the game and how you play the game. In my opinion, stuff like that scars the players.
“How can I hold you accountable when there was a point where I was like, ‘Eh…’ You know, that’s just me. In many ways, we have to continuously protect our game and make sure that when we lace them up and we go out there, we’re giving our all always.”
Injury Notes: Prince, Collins, Pacers, Goodwin
Bucks forward Taurean Prince has been upgraded to questionable ahead of Tuesday’s matchup with Phoenix, tweets Eric Nehm of The Athletic.
It’s a surprising development, as Prince has been out since November after undergoing surgery to address a herniated disk in his neck. The Bucks applied for a disabled player exception in the wake of Prince’s injury, and NBA doctors determined he was more likely than not to be out through June 15, because Milwaukee was granted the DPE, per Eric Pincus of Sports Business Classroom.
While it’s unlikely the Bucks will use the $1,651,887 disabled player exception they received for Prince anyway, it’s worth noting that they would forfeit it if he’s active tomorrow. Incidentally, Tuesday is also the deadline for teams to use DPEs.
According to Nehm (Twitter link), Prince has been working out regularly on the court after practices and prior to games since he returned to the team following the surgery. The 31-year-old sent out a tweet indicating that he’s close to playing again.
Prince, a 10-year veteran, last played on November 4, Milwaukee’s eighth game of the season. He holds a $3.8MM player option for 2026/27.
Here are a few more injury updates from around the NBA:
- The Clippers expect John Collins to remain sidelined this week as he continues to deal with a neck strain, per Mark Medina (Twitter link). Collins, who last played on March 1, missed his fifth straight game on Monday. The 28-year-old power forward has done some on-court work, Medina adds. Collins will be a free agent this summer.
- The Pacers will be without All-Star forward Pascal Siakam (right knee sprain) and backup point guard T.J. McConnell (right hamstring soreness) on Tuesday against Sacramento, the team announced (via Twitter). Starting point guard Andrew Nembhard is also unlikely to suit up, having been listed as doubtful due to lower back and neck soreness.
- Suns guard Jordan Goodwin has been upgraded to questionable for Tuesday’s game at Milwaukee, according to Gerald Bourguet of Suns After Dark (Twitter link). Goodwin, a tenacious rebounder and defender, has missed Phoenix’s last seven games due to a left calf strain. Grayson Allen (right knee injury management) is also questionable for the Suns.
Central Notes: Pistons, Harden, Dieng, McConnell
The Pistons aren’t panicking even though their comfortable lead atop the East has eroded after their worst week of the season, writes Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press. Detroit suffered its fourth straight loss Sunday in Miami and is now just two-and-a-half games ahead of Boston in the race for the No. 1 seed.
“It’s the NBA, right? And you look at the season, it’s long,” coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “Everybody goes through difficult times or goes through a little bit of a rut. And we just found ours right now. And again, we’ve got plenty of time left to do what we got to do. Boston, obviously, is a good team. But we’re not concerned about Boston. Our biggest concern is making sure we’re doing what we need to do to go out and be as good as we possibly can.”
Cade Cunningham returned after sitting out Saturday’s loss to Brooklyn with a left quad contusion, but his 26 points and 10 assists weren’t enough to get the Pistons back in the win column. Reynolds points out that the schedule has been challenging recently – with three of the four losses coming against Cleveland, San Antonio and Miami – which is among the reasons the team isn’t overreacting to a tough stretch.
“Obviously, it’s probably our biggest dose of adversity all year,” Tobias Harris said. “We’ll be fine. Keep our head high and just (move) on to the next. But along this way, along this journey, let’s figure out ways that we can be better as a group.”
There’s more from the Central Division:
- Sunday’s home loss to Boston was a discouraging outcome for a Cavaliers team that’s trying to build a new identity after trading for James Harden, Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com observes in a subscriber-only story. The Celtics were dominant for most of the afternoon and are looming as a tough matchup for the Cavs if they meet in the playoffs. “I told everybody, that’s the standard right there,” Harden said. “Me being in my 10th or 11th game here, that’s the level that we’ve gotta get to, Boston. Once we get there, because I know we’re good enough, we will get there, then we’ll be a much better team.”
- Ousmane Dieng did some intensive studying after being traded to the Bucks last month and was able to learn the playbook in two or three days, per Lori Nickel of The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel (subscription required). Dieng had been stuck on the bench for most of his career in Oklahoma City, but he’s been much more productive since the deal. “When you play the right way, you can play with anybody, or any team,” he said. “I just feel like I play the right way.”
- Pacers coach Rick Carlisle expressed concern about T.J. McConnell, who was forced out of Sunday’s game with soreness in his right hamstring, per Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star (Twitter link).
Pacers Notes: Carlisle, Mathurin, I. Jackson, Brown, Defense
Head coach Rick Carlisle made it clear on February 24 that he didn’t think the Pacers deserved to be fined $100K by the NBA last month for the way they managed their players. Commissioner Adam Silver‘s statement at the time suggested the league thought Indiana (and Utah, which was docked $500K) was prioritizing “draft position over winning.”
Speaking to the media prior to Friday’s game in Los Angeles, Carlisle changed his tune, saying he was confident in the league’s ability to address tanking, according to Sportsnaut contributor Mark Medina.
“I place every bit of trust I have in Adam Silver,” Carlisle said. “This man is privy to be the ultimate leader. He really has. He really has smart people around him. They very carefully consider everything. They never react. They always think through things.”
While Carlisle’s remarks about the league were more generous than the ones he made a couple weeks ago, he strongly pushed back on the notion that coaches of tanking teams are negatively impacted by the practice, Medina writes. Carlisle specifically pointed to Mark Daigneault of the Thunder as someone who has benefited from the current system.
“You have the two best teams in the league — one in the East (Detroit) and one in the West (Oklahoma City) — that have built their teams much the same way,” Carlisle said. “I think Daigneault is a great example. He was a G League coach. But he built a relationship in that organization and a partnership. If he built those relationships and you become a real partner, the wins and losses, this is just my opinion, the wins and losses element of it, isn’t going to be that kind of a factor.”
Here’s more on the Pacers:
- Wednesday’s game in L.A. marked the first time Pacers first-round picks Bennedict Mathurin and Isaiah Jackson faced their former team since they were traded to the Clippers ahead of last month’s deadline. As Tony East of Circle City Spin writes, Jackson said he was caught off guard by the trade, adding that it was “surreal” and “bittersweet” to face the Pacers after spending spending five-and-a-half years with Indiana. Mathurin expressed a similar sentiment. “It was tough. It was tough for sure. … Everything I know is kind of based off of Indy, whether it’s just the lifestyle, on the court, off the court,” Mathurin said. “But I mean, it was good. It was definitely worth it – the change of scenery and also the change of organization. I said earlier that I was super grateful to be part of both, two great parties. It’s been fun, man. It’s been fun out here so far. My teammates have embraced me a lot, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.“
- Kobe Brown was something of an afterthought in the aforementioned deal that saw Ivica Zubac land with Indiana, but the third-year forward has played pretty well as a Pacer, averaging 8.8 points and 5.3 rebounds on .471/.423/.786 shooting in 10 games (24.8 minutes per contest). While Brown is unlikely to be a priority for the Pacers in free agency this summer, they will be limited in what they can offer him after the Clippers declined his fourth-year option in the fall, East notes for Forbes. It probably won’t have a material impact on contract negotiations, East acknowledges, since Brown seems unlikely to command a deal in this range, but Indiana can’t offer him a starting salary exceeding $4.8MM in 2026/27, whereas other teams won’t face that same restriction.
- Defense remains a major issue for the Pacers, per Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star (subscriber link). They’re at the bottom of several defensive stats — including defensive rating — since the All-Star break, a trend that continued in Friday’s loss to the Lakers, which was far more lopsided than the final score (128-117) suggests. “In the first half, we had three or four times where we went for shot fakes and gave up and-ones or free throws,” Carlisle said. “That’s game-plan discipline. We can do better there. That’s controllable. It takes not talent. It just takes recognition and attention to detail and focus.”
NBA Explores Launching Streaming RSN Hub For 2026/27
The NBA has let its teams know that there’s a chance it will introduce a streaming hub for local broadcasts as soon as next season, sources tell Tom Friend of Sports Business Journal. Many clubs’ local broadcasts have been thrown into disarray due to the fact that Main Street Sports Group, which has regional TV agreements with 13 NBA teams, is likely headed for insolvency.
That group of 13 teams – which includes the defending champion Thunder, along with the Spurs, Pistons, Cavaliers, Clippers, Heat, Timberwolves, Magic, Hornets, Hawks, Pacers, Grizzlies, and Bucks – would be the most likely candidates to be involved in the NBA’s new streaming hub.
As Friend points out, there are a few more teams (the Suns, Jazz, Trail Blazers, Mavericks, and Pelicans) who have already abandoned their respective regional sports networks and could be candidates for the new venture as well. On top of that, Friend’s sources suspect the four teams who have deals with NBC Sports – the Celtics, Warriors, Sixers, and Kings – could be in play due to a sense that NBC may want out of the regional sports network business.
The other eight teams broadcast games on their own networks, which doesn’t necessarily rule them out, but would make it more complicated for the league to negotiate deals with each of them.
While it remains unclear exactly what the new setup will look like, Friend hears that the NBA has engaged in talks with potential partners like YouTube TV, DAZN, Amazon, and ESPN as it considers a package that might resemble NFL Sunday Ticket.
The total number of teams that opt in figures to be a major factor in determining the viability of this new streaming hub, Friend writes, citing sources who think the NBA would need to guarantee a broadcast partner a certain threshold of clubs in order to secure a significant deal. With enough teams involved, industry insiders believe an agreement would be worth billions, Friend adds.
Due to its financial woes, Main Street has missed payments to its teams on January 1, February 1, and March 1, per Sports Business Journal. The NBA originally didn’t plan on launching this sort of streaming hub until down the road, Friend writes, but it has become a higher priority in order to help teams make up for those lost rights-fee payments.
Although the league has informed its teams that it’s trying to get something together for the 2026/27 season, there’s no guarantee that will happen, so Main Street clubs have been advised to explore lining up a bridge deal for their local broadcasts. Those teams are exploring both linear and streaming options, Friend notes.
Friend also points out that, since a new league-wide streaming hub may overlap with League Pass, the NBA may need to either restructure League Pass or eliminate it all together down the road. Amazon currently distributes League Pass as part of its national broadcast agreement with the NBA, so those negotiations would be simpler if the league ultimately strikes a deal to make Amazon its partner on a new streaming RSN.
Central Notes: Zubac, Pacers, Porter, Kuzma, Pistons
With the league’s second-worst record, the Pacers don’t have much incentive to play Ivica Zubac, but coach Rick Carlisle said the veteran center will be back on the court before the season ends, according to Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star (Twitter link). Zubac, who was acquired from the Clippers at the trade deadline, is dealing with a left ankle sprain and hasn’t appeared in a game since February 2. He was able to begin practicing as a limited participant during the All-Star break and is making progress toward a return.
“Yeah, he’ll play this season,” Carlisle said Wednesday during a pregame session with the media. “I don’t know when. He’s doing better, but he’s not there yet and we’re not going to send a guy out there to play who isn’t 100 percent.”
Indiana pursued several centers prior to the deadline before landing Zubac, who will take over starting duties on what should be a much-improved team next season. He was a second-team All-Defensive selection a year ago and was averaging 14.4 points, 11.0 rebounds and 2.2 assists in 43 games with L.A. before the injury.
There’s more from the Central Division:
- Obi Toppin was used as a starter when he returned from a lengthy injury absence last week, giving the Pacers their 34th different starting lineup of the season, Tony East of Forbes writes in a subscriber-only story. The changing lineups were heavily influenced by injuries, but East expects Carlisle to keep experimenting with his rotation to determine what might be effective in the future. “During the games, I look at the plus-minus and see what’s happening there,” Carlisle said. “Sometimes there’s a guy that’s playing hard but doesn’t seem to be scoring the ball or doing anything overtly in-your-face positive. And then you look, he’s a big plus. So that does mean something. And of course, plus-minus is noisy. It’s got its glitches too. But you try to look at everything, see what’s what. And then right now, with all the injury stuff, one of the blessings for a coach is there’s not a whole lot of choices. There’s just a few. So just keep dabbling.”
- Bucks guard Kevin Porter Jr. is missing Wednesday’s game with swelling in his right knee, which is the same knee that he tore his meniscus in early this season. Coach Doc Rivers is hoping it won’t lead to another extended absence, per Eric Nehm of The Athletic (Twitter link). “We’re hoping not. I’ll just leave it there,” Rivers said. “They’re gonna do more stuff tomorrow to check, but it’s a lot of swelling and then you have concerns. … It’s been bothering him the last couple of weeks really, but it just hadn’t swollen up the way it has, so there’s some concern there.”
- Kyle Kuzma was kept on the bench as the Bucks lost to Boston on Monday, but Rivers said that won’t be a regular occurrence, Nehm adds (Twitter link).
- The Pistons were unhappy with their competitiveness in two games against the Cavaliers over the past week, relays Omari Sankofa II of The Detroit Free Press (subscription required). They split the contests, but coach J.B. Bickerstaff was disappointed that his team didn’t play harder. “I’m frustrated with the effort level, the attention to detail that we played on that end of the floor,” he said. “The times and opportunities where we did do the right thing, did get stops, we let people outwork us to come up with offensive rebounds. We can’t afford to not play at maximum effort. That’s been our superpower all year long and, tonight, I felt like there were times where we were outworked. If we’re outworked, this isn’t going to be the results that we want.”
Eastern Notes: Young, Ellis, Jackson, Nets, G League Awards
His Wizards debut won’t happen until Thursday, but Trae Young has already earned his first ejection as a member of his new team. As Josh Robbins of The Athletic writes, Young was lobbying for referees in Monday’s game to make a call on Tari Eason after the Rockets forward shoved Wizards wing Jamir Watkins multiple times. Young was initially called for a technical foul before officials conferred and ejected him for walking onto the court.
Head coach Brian Keefe explained to reporters after the game why he didn’t mind the ejection.
“I think he was just sticking up for his teammates, which I thought was great,” Keefe said. “Obviously, the refs missed a call, (in) which our guy got knocked down, and I loved how our teammates stuck with him. So, whatever happened in that moment, I was actually proud of him, because he stuck up for us teammates, and I really care about that type of stuff.”
Young didn’t speak to reporters about the incident, but tweeted a laughing emoji accompanied by the message, “Don’t expect me to get ejected too many more times, D.C. But I’m definitely bringing that energy and competitiveness when I’m back for my brothers!”
According to Marc Stein of The Stein Line (Twitter link), Young isn’t expected to face any additional discipline from the league office for coming onto the court from the bench.
We have more from around the Eastern Conference:
- While he was somewhat overshadowed at the deadline because the Cavaliers also acquired James Harden and Dennis Schröder, guard Keon Ellis has impressed his new teammates and head coach with his tenacity on defense, according to Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com (subscription required). A potential 2026 unrestricted free agent who is currently eligible for a contract extension, Ellis had an incredible five blocks and three steals in Sunday’s win in Brooklyn. “He never gives up on a play,” head coach Kenny Atkinson said. “I’ve never quite seen a player like him defensively. He’s not a massive guy but he plays way bigger than he looks. Length counts. Activity counts. He makes up for probably the strength deficit with his activity.”
- Quenton Jackson‘s new three-year deal with the Pacers will pay him $601,553 – his minimum – for the rest of the season and includes a partial guarantee of $275K on his minimum salary ($2,584,539) for 2026/27, Hoops Rumors has learned. Indiana used a portion of its mid-level exception to complete the signing, which includes a fully non-guaranteed third year.
- The Nets have lost eight straight games to drop to 15-45 on the season, but they’re seeing positive development from rookies like Nolan Traore and Danny Wolf. Brian Lewis of The New York Post (subscription required) takes a look at the strides Traore is making, while Peter Botte of The New York Post examines Wolf’s growth.
- Although MarJon Beauchamp has only appeared in two NBA games since signing a two-way contract with the Sixers in December, he’s putting up some big numbers for the Delaware Blue Coats. Beauchamp was named the G League’s latest Player of the Week for averaging 32.0 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 6.0 assists in a pair of Blue Coats victories (Twitter link). Meanwhile, Bulls two-way guard Mac McClung was named the league’s Player of the Month for February after averaging 33.0 PPG and scoring no fewer than 24 points in any of his seven games last month for the Windy City Bulls (Twitter link).
Potter Making Case To Stick With Pacers Into 2026/27
- Indiana hold a team option on Micah Potter‘s contract for next season, and the fifth-year big man is making a strong case for the Pacers to exercise it with his recent play, according to Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star (subscriber link). Over his last eight games (25.6 MPG), Potter is averaging 15.4 PPG, 5.9 RPG, 2.0 RPG and 0.9 SPG on .538/.463/.870 shooting. The 27-year-old has some defensive limitation, but he has been a good fit in Indiana’s offensive system, Dopirak writes. “Solid is the word,” head coach Rick Carlisle said. “Micah, that’s what he is. He’s solid. He’s a no-frills player. He doesn’t try to be fancy out there. He plays the game, he works to play to his strengths. I like that he’s a stretch big that can legitimately play some four. That’s a very good thing.” Potter’s $2.8MM salary for 2026/27 would still be non-guaranteed even if the Pacers exercise that option.